NOME is pleased to present Paolo Cirio’s solo show Public and Private at 515/ Adelinquere Arte Contemporanea, Turin.

Public and Private deals with the topics of privacy and surveillance related to ownership and the circulation of personal photos over the internet.

Shown are two works from the series Obscurity, a selection of printed mugshots, which were appropriated from the Internet and manipulated by a custom-made algorithm to make the individuals unrecognizable. The works will be presented as a premiere and target some of the major mug-shots websites which are designed to expose personal data affecting reputation with social stigmas and attendant prejudgments. As a final element, this work advocates for a Right to Remove sensitive information from search engine results that jeopardizes the privacy and security of ordinary citizens. The series will be exhibited at the Ars Electronica Museum in Linz in 2016 and at the Musée National d’Histoire et d’Art in Luxembourg in 2017.

The portraits of Caitlin Hayden, former spokeswoman at the National Security Council (NSC), and David Petraeus, former CIA director, are appropriated selfies from the internet. The photos have been spray-painted on canvas and photographic paper using an HD graffiti stencil technique developed by the artist. These works are from the Overexposed series of portraits of high-ranking US intelligence officials who have been involved in mass surveillance programs or have misled the public about them. Overexposed was exhibited at Centre de la Photographie in Geneva, the ICP Museum in NYC, and the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome for the Quadriennale. It will be shown at the Munich Stadtmuseum and at C/O Berlin in 2017.

The artworks from the Street Ghost series are appropriated photos of people found on Google Street View printed life-size and pasted in the same locations they were taken. Street Ghosts was exhibited in many art institutions including the Open Society Foundation (NYC), and the MCA (Denver), and is currently on view at International Kunstverein Luxembourg. It will be shown at Museum für Fotografie (Berlin) in early 2017.